Tourism is a team activity - it requires many different actors, each with their own specialty - to create great tourism experiences. In each tourism destination, there are many players, contributing unique services, acting in concert, but acting independently, on the tourism team. The way tourism teams work in destinations is fascinating for a number of reasons. I'll explore some of the unique elements of these teams in coming posts but today I want to focus on the question - who is in charge of the team ?...

03 March, 2019 /

[caption id="attachment_748" align="alignleft" width="228"] Plastic Bottles on the road to Everest[/caption] It is rare that we ever pay the full cost of a product. The reality of this fact came to me as I was walking through the SolumKumba in Nepal last month and bought water in a plastic bottle of water. Sure, the water was more expensive in the village – almost 4 times more expensive as down in Kathmandu – but that was understandable given the transportation costs of getting the water to me. It had come by...

24 August, 2018 /

Overtourism is a significant problem for many of the world’s most popular destinations. In the summer of 2017, the issue of overtourism came to a boil with many media outlets questioning – what can be done about overtourism? The problem was (and is) immediate and seemed to have come upon us suddenly - almost by surprise. Of course, overtourism wasn't a surprise. Like many feedback loops in systems, the problem of overtourism had been building in the tourism system for a long time before it was noticed by the...

04 June, 2018 /

We came to their village and they welcomed us with warm smiles and simple gifts; Flowers, tea, tasty snacks. The head of the community spoke words of friendship and we walked through the village, the Annapurna range in the distance. We stopped by a well and spoke to the young people, collecting water for the evening meal. We were sharing our evening meal with a small group of families. After dinner, they brought out their iPhone and wireless speakers and played an eclectic mix of traditional Nepalese songs...

06 October, 2017 /

From a marketing perspective, the answer to “where do I start?” is always with your target market. For many small tourism businesses that can be a hard thing to do – after all – your product is right there in front of you – and it is beautiful. Over summer I had the great pleasure of visiting tourism product in the area of San Juan de Arama in the Meta region of Colombia. As the ink dries on the peace treaty that ends the war in Colombia, the people...

01 October, 2016 /

There is an excitement about the power of social entrepreneurship. Unleashing the power of entrepreneurial thinking on social problems provides “out of the box” solutions  after years of "standard" responses these challenges. However, some of the most vocal advocates for social entrepreneurship only extoll the virtues of scalable solutions and game-changing approaches. There is more to social enterprise than a few large organizations and I want to take a moment to celebrate social entrepreneurs that are working in their own small corners of the world, making real and positive change...

06 July, 2016 /

"A brand is no-longer what we tell consumers it is. It is what consumers tell each other." Scott Cook - Founder of Intuit. While Cook's experience as a software developer may seem far removed from tourism, this insight is having profound impact on Destination Marketing. At a time when destination branding is becoming more important, there is a greater realization that branding is not just a function of "Promotion" - great advertising, PR, online advertising, etc -  another of the 4 P's of marketing is taking its place in...

26 May, 2015 /

So what do the destinations of the future look like ? It's a great question. Too often it seems that as destinations become more popular - they become less appealing. We love our destinations to death. That is why it is great that DMO managers are stepping up and engaging in the planning, developing and management of their destinations. No-longer are DMOs just promoting their destinations - they are actively involved in "product development" and "destination experience". DestinationNext, DMAI's strategic planning initiative, highlights DMOs important role in creating the destination communities of the...

20 May, 2015 /

"Sustainability" has been described as one of the most "jargony-ist" words of recent times. Because I talk about sustainability a lot, I get this feedback from everyone - students, hoteliers, tour operators and DMOs.  I agree ! The word "sustainability"  is used way too frequently and too carelessly - and it's too bad - because lost in the "I'm so over this word - sustainability" attitude is the important fact that DMOs are important agents of sustainability. Imagine working to make the destination the best place it could be -...

15 May, 2015 /
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